Colorado General Assembly: National popular vote bill advances

House last stop before governor on bill to end electoral college process

By Marianne Goodland

The Fort Morgan Times

Posted:
02/17/2019 08:31:26 PM MST

Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg

A House committee last week moved a bill forward that would allow Colorado to join 12 other states in a "National Popular Vote."

The House State, Veterans and Military Affairs approved Senate Bill 42 Tuesday on a party-line 6-3 vote.

The National Popular Vote is an interstate compact that would eventually grant the presidency to the candidate who wins the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Twelve states, with a combined 172 electoral votes, have already joined the compact. It would go into effect when it reaches 270 electoral votes, the amount required for a presidential election win. Eleven states, including Colorado, have or are considering legislation on the issue, according to nationalpopularvote.com.

Rep. Rod Pelton

Rural lawmakers, including Sonnenberg, have warned that such a shift would short-change rural voters in smaller states.

The Colorado Republican Party attempted to gin up opposition to the bill at Tuesday's hearing, which stretched late into the evening. GOP Chair Jeff Hays sent out a call to action on Monday, stating the hearing was the last chance to save Colorado's constitution from the Democrats.

The bill now moves on to the Colorado House for debate and a final vote. If not amended during its trip through the House, the bill would go directly to Gov. Jared Polis, who has said he supports the idea.

Pelton takes losses

Republican Rep. Rod Pelton of Cheyenne Wells had a tough week, with two measures he sponsored voted down in committee hearings.

Advertisement

Pelton's House Bill 1057 would have allowed counties to publish required notices online instead of in local newspapers. The bill died in the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee on a 7-3 party-line vote; it was opposed by the Colorado Press Association, but supported by Colorado Counties, Inc., the state association of county commissioners.

He didn't fare any better with the House Energy & Environment Committee on Monday, when it tossed his bill on allowing for taller wind towers in rural communities, despite having two Democratic co-sponsors and a governor who is big on renewable energy.

House Bill 1165 would grant a 10-year county property tax exemption that supporters said would encourage development of the next big thing in wind technology: bigger towers.

Currently, he explained to the committee, the maximum width for a tower that can be hauled on county roads and highways is 14 feet.

His bill would allow on-site construction of bigger towers, up to 21 feet in width, and would grant an exemption for business personal property taxes to construct those bigger towers. This is rural economic development, Pelton said. This bill would help Colorado attract this new technology before other states, he explained.

House Bill 1165 was backed by The Western Way, a conservative environmental organization. Former state Sen. Greg Brophy of Wray, the Colorado director of The Western Way, told the committee that these mobile factories could be rolled out, one a year, and that Colorado is competing for these businesses with states like Wyoming (which he said has more wind), Texas and Oklahoma. He also suggested the tax exemption could be scaled back to six years or less, until the equipment isn't so scarce.

But committee members objected because the state isn't covering the cost of those tax exemptions; it would be a cost borne by the counties that collect those property taxes. In addition, the loss of those property taxes would require the state to make up the difference for school districts that rely on those taxes. They also pointed out that counties already have the ability to come up with tax incentives for these companies and that's where the discussions should be taking place. The bill failed on a bipartisan 2-9 vote.

New 'Red Flag' bill

Finally, Democrats on Thursday rolled out the 2019 version of the so-called "red flag" bill, also known as an Extreme Risk Protection Order.

As described by Democrats - no Republican lawmakers showed up to support it - a person deemed a risk to themselves or to others could have their guns and ammunition removed by law enforcement. The person would then be granted legal counsel and a hearing within 14 days to determine if that removal should continue. If the person needs mental health treatment, the weapons can be retained by law enforcement for up to 364 days.

The bill is named after Douglas County Deputy Sheriff Zachary Parrish, III, who was gunned down in an ambush on Dec. 31, 2017, by a man believed to be mentally ill. Thirteen other states have red flag laws, most of them similar to the 2019 bill, according to supporters.

In a statement issued after the Feb. 14 news conference - held on the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida - Rocky Mountain Gun Owners Executive Director Dudley Brown said the bill is intended "to strip gun owners of their lawfully owned property without due process..."

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.